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You may not know that a Home Office minister is touring the UK holding 'consultation' meetings about the National Identity Scheme, and that it is more nonsensical than even the average government consultation exercise. She is, however, and nothing will be allowed to stand in her way. 3 members of NO2ID were arrested this morning for "suspected breach of the peace" while protesting outside the venue of the Edinburgh consultation exercise. Making ministers look bad will these days get you hustled away by police, apparently.
The reason the 'consultation' is even more fatuous than usual is this. There is no question the intention is to go ahead: the legislation was passed two years ago. And any questioning of the plan is ruled out of order – if not, indeed, arrestable. The object of this tour is to gather together "stakeholders" – businesses and voluntary organisations, and to persuade them that helping the government strong-arm their customers, staff and volunteers into enrolling will ultimately be for the good of all. In fact it seeks suggestions from them how best to get universal compliance.
Rounding up any dissidents is the last resort, of course.
Update: Apparently 9 people are still in custody at time of writing (18:20 BST). Hat-tip: Glasgow Herald, who called me for a statement.
Update 2: (06:23 BST) You can read the account of Geraint Bevan, of NO2ID Scotland, here. (The hard scientists among our readers will be pleased to know that the 'Dr' signifies Geraint just got his PhD in engineering.)


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Tax appeal deadline extended due to pandemic
HMRC has granted tax payers extra time to appeal its decisions or penalties where the usual 30-day deadline cannot be met due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The decision means that taxpayers who have received tax decisions, including penalty assessments, from HMRC since the beginning of February 2020 now have an extra three months to appeal them, if they or their business were negatively impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.
The decision was also taken due to potential practical issues due to the lockdown. For example, some businesses and accountants will not have been able to collect their post and will therefore miss risking deadlines in circumstances where HMRC only corresponds by post.
HMRC has also confirmed that coronavirus is an acceptable excuse for any missed payments or tax-filing deadlines. However, taxpayers will need to outline how coronavirus impaired their ability to meet HMRC deadlines.
Where the 30-day deadline to appeal a decision or penalty is missed, HMRC requests that taxpayers submit their appeals as soon as possible and explain that the delay is because of coronavirus.
Similarly, HMRC will not object to taxpayers asking a tribunal to hear their appeal outside of the normal 30-day deadline where the decision is dated February 2020 or later, provided that the request to the tribunal is made within three months of the normal deadline.
If coronavirus is impacting your business operations, we are here to help. Contact us today.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Green Bay's grab of the NFC North for the third straight season, giving the Packers seven of the 12 titles since the division formed, was predictable.
That unremarkable 8-7-1 record they won it with was the real surprise.
Chicago took a step back, too, and Minnesota plummeted badly. Detroit was the only team with more victories than the previous year, but still had a losing mark and fired its coach. Such mediocrity, though, should not mask the abundance of elite talent that still exists in this quartet.
From stars Aaron Rodgers, Adrian Peterson and Calvin Johnson to up-and-comers Cordarrelle Patterson, Alshon Jeffrey and Eddie Lacy, with standouts like Reggie Bush, Brandon Marshall and Randall Cobb somewhere in between, the NFC North could probably field a Pro Bowl offense all by itself.
The Packers, Lions and Bears all ranked in the top eight in the league in total yards, and even the Vikings with their persistent quarterback problems finished 13th, higher than five playoff teams.
For this division to again produce a true championship-caliber team, keeping those key players healthy all year is the first prerequisite. Then the defenses must get better. If not, and this season looks a lot like the last, well, the games are bound to be entertaining with all those big-play guys throwing, running and catching the ball.
Here are some things to know about the NFC North this year:
IN CASE OF INJURY, CALL ... When the previously infallible Rodgers went down with a broken collarbone, the dynamic of the division changed. The Packers were just barely good enough to survive his absence and beat the Bears in the final week, which served as a play-in game for the NFC playoffs. That was quite the feat considering they lost Cobb, outside linebacker Clay Matthews, left tackle Bryan Bulaga and several other starters for multiple games.
The injuries transcended all three Wisconsin borders.
Josh McCown helped the Bears withstand quarterback Jay Cutler's torn groin, but the defense lost Henry Melton, D.J. Williams, Lance Briggs and Charles Tillman for a total of 38 games. Johnson wasn't the same Megatron for the Lions, missing two games and fighting knee and finger trouble that prompted offseason procedures. Peterson had a similar letdown with the Vikings, spraining his foot in December and needing surgery on his groin in January.
PICKED THE PACK, DID PEPPERS: The Packers made a rare splash in free agency by signing eight-time Pro Bowl pick Julius Peppers, who played the last four years with the Bears. Peppers, whose 119 career sacks are the third most among active players, is making the transition from the traditional 4-3 defensive end to the 3-4 scheme at age 34. He could, though, provide a valuable boost to a defense that sagged down the stretch last year.
''I'm looking forward to not only proving to myself that I can do it, but proving to the outsiders who don't think I can do it,'' Peppers said.
MORE DEFENSE SPENDING: One spot ahead of Peppers on the active player sacks list is Jared Allen, who also switched NFC North rivals by leaving the Vikings for the Bears. Like Peppers, Allen at 32 is past his prime at a speed-based position. But the five-time Pro Bowl pick, too, will be eager to prove he's not done as a dominant pass rusher. The Bears were tied for last in the league in sacks last year and gave up the second-most points, fewer than only the Vikings.
''Everybody sees the ability and what we have on paper. But that doesn't necessarily mean anything. You've got to go out and ... make it happen,'' Allen said.
BRIDGE TO BRIDGEWATER: The Vikings have a new coach in Mike Zimmer and a new quarterback in Teddy Bridgewater, though the first-round draft pick from Louisville has been behind veteran Matt Cassel on the depth chart since he arrived. Cassel played well enough last season after Christian Ponder lost the job to give the Vikings confidence in him until Bridgewater is ready to take over - whether that's this September, next September or somewhere in between.
''I think Teddy's going to be a great player,'' Zimmer said.
ROAR RESTORATION: Jim Schwartz was replaced by Jim Caldwell as coach of the Lions. Detroit went 10-6 and made the playoffs in 2011, then slumped to 4-12 in 2012 and squandered a 6-3 start with control of the division, only to finish 7-9 in 2013. Addressing any particular weaknesses on the roster was not as important over the winter and spring as rebuilding confidence and optimism within a group that still boasts plenty of star-caliber players.
''I believe we're on the threshold of some great things,'' Caldwell said. ''I think the organization is ready, the city of Detroit is ready, our fan base is ready, and I think our players are ready as well.''
Predicted order of finish: Packers; Bears; Vikings; Lions.


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the Third Week of Lent
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Bible Commentaries
People's New Testament People's NT
SUMMARY.--The Arrest. The Trial Before the Sanhedrim. Peter's Reply. The Counsel of the Sanhedrists. Their Charge to Peter and John. The Appeal of Peter and John to the Higher Law. The Meeting of the Church for Prayer. The Divine Blessing.
Verse 1
As they spake. Peter and John were both speaking, to separate groups probably.
The priests. Those of the course then on duty in the temple. See notes on Luk 1:5.
The captain of the temple. The head of the temple police, who were composed of Levites, and whose duty it was to guard the sacred precincts. See Luk 22:4.
And the Sadducees. See notes on Mat 3:7 and Mat 22:23. They were rationalists, and denied the resurrection of the dead. Annas and Caiaphas, the ex-high priest and the acting high priest, were of the sect, and hence, though the sect was not numerous, it was now very powerful.
Verse 2
Being grieved. There were three classes of assailants: priests, military, and Sadducees. They had three grounds for action: that Peter and John taught the people, that they taught in the name of Christ, and that they bore witness of the resurrection. The last doctrine, of the resurrection, uprooted the creed of the Sadducees. While Jesus lived, his assailants were chiefly Pharisees; when his apostles began to preach his resurrection the Sadducees came to the front as his chief opposers. This will be noted throughout Acts.
Verse 3
Put them in hold. In prison until the next day, for it was now late in the evening.
Verse 4
Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed. Became converts. This (believed) is a usual scriptural expression for the whole change wrought by belief. "Faith comes by hearing . . . the word of God" (Rom 10:17), and faith leads to obedience.
The number of the men was about five thousand. It is probable that the meaning is that the number of men was now increased to five thousand. The term in the Greek (andres) does not properly include women, so that this is the number of male believers. It is probable that most of the converts of Pentecost and of this occasion were men. Oriental women were not likely to attend in large numbers on such public occasions.
Verse 5
Their rulers, and elders, and scribes. A meeting of the Sanhedrim, the great council of seventy, is meant. These classes, with the priests named in the next verse, constituted it. The members of the Sanhedrim were usually called rulers; the elders were old men, selected for the place on account of wisdom; the scribes were the lawyers, or theologians.
Verse 6
Annas the high priest. Still so called, though deposed ten years before by the Romans. The Jews held him still as high priest by right.
Caiaphas. Son-in-law of Annas, and the high priest now in office by Roman appointment.
John and Alexander. No doubt great men at the time, but we know nothing of them.
Kindred of the high priest. Of the family of Annas, all of priestly rank, and many of them holding high offices. The Sanhedrim usually met in a hall of the temple.
Verse 7
Set them in the midst. The high priest acted as president, and the members were arranged in a semi-circle around him, with the prisoners in front.
By what power? They could not deny the miracle, but they thought that it had been done by some incantation. They ask an explanation.
Verse 8
Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit. They had been promised the Divine help when put on trial (Mat 10:19-20). It was now given. Here was an opportunity to preach Christ to the very body that had sent him to death.
Verse 9
If we this day be examined of the good deed. Observe Peter's point, that they are prisoners on trial for a good deed.
Verse 10
By the name of Jesus Christ. It was the power of that one whom that very court had condemned which had wrought the miracle.
Whom ye crucified. Peter becomes the accuser. They, his accusers, have been guilty of crucifying the Messiah. They crucified him, but God raised him from the dead.
Verse 11
This is the stone which was set at nought. Quoted from Psalm 118. A figure drawn from a building where a rejected, despised stone is the most important and indispensable stone of the structure. Christ quoted the same passage, applied to himself (Mat 21:42).
Verse 12
Salvation in none other. No other Savior but Jesus; no salvation if his is rejected; no other name or power to save from destruction, unless he is accepted. Why, then, should men invoke the Virgin, or the saints?
Verses 13-14
Perceived that they were unlearned. Not educated in the schools of the rabbins. They had, however, a better learning.
They had been with Jesus. In them the crucified Jesus stands before them, fearless as their Master.
Beholding the man. He was the unimpeachable proof of the miracle.
Verse 15
When they had commanded them to go aside. They sent them from their presence in order that they might confer freely together. The substance of their deliberations is condensed and reported. The conclusion they arrived at was, not to punish them for a miracle that all the people knew had taken place, but to stop their preaching by threats.
Verse 19
Whether it be right in the sight of God. They appeal to the higher law. Their earthly government commanded them not to do what God had directed them to do. In a conflict of this kind there is only one course, that is, to obey God.
Verse 20
We cannot but speak. Are under a moral and spiritual obligation to speak. They had a Divine message, and must tell it.
Verses 21-22
Let them go. With threats, afraid to punish them lest they should exasperate the people.
Above forty years old. Therefore known to everybody as a life-long cripple.
Verse 23
Came to their own company. To the body of Christians assembled together, and there reported what had taken place.
Verse 24
Lifted up their voice to God with one accord. All engaged in prayer. It was a time of trial. They were forbidden, under awful threats, to preach Christ. Hence they go to God.
Verse 25
Why did the heathen rage? Quoted from the second psalm. The predicted facts were all fulfilled in the trial and death of Christ. Act 4:27 shows how they were fulfilled.
Verse 28
To do whatsoever . . . thy counsel determined before to be done. It is not said that God decreed that Pilate, Herod and the rulers should do what they did, but that they did what God had decreed should be done. It was God's will that Christ should die, but they chose, of their own malignity, to slay him. Their will was free.
Verses 29-30
And now, Lord, . . . grant. Note their petition. They do not ask to be saved from pain, persecution, or death. There is nothing asked for themselves personally, but they ask (1) that they may have boldness, in the face of threats, to speak the word, and (2) that God would bear them witness by gifts of miraculous power. Their prayer is all for the work's sake.
Verse 31
The place was shaken. As a sensible evidence that their prayer was granted, and then they were filled with the Holy Spirit, as on Pentecost, so inspired that all fear was shaken off.
Verses 32-35
The multitude of them that believed. All the church.
Of one heart and soul. Perfectly united as one body and with one life.
Neither said any of them. Note the language that follows. It does not describe a community of goods, but a miraculous benevolence: (1) the goods were not a common fund, but each one had goods that he possessed; (2) he did not say that his goods were his own; (3) they used all as if it belonged to all; (4) there were none that lacked, for (5) those that had houses and lands sold them and brought the proceeds to the apostles. It was a time when a great liberality was called for. Thousands of Jews from abroad had become Christians and must remain at Jerusalem until instructed in the gospel. It was a great emergency, and the church was equal to it, for they brought money, goods, and the proceeds of houses and lands to sustain those who lacked. This continued until God was ready to send them forth, and when the persecution arose about Stephen they "went everywhere preaching the word."
Verses 36-37
Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas. His name was Joses; but the apostles from some feature of his character called him Barnabas, "the son of exhortation" (see Revision).
A Levite. Of the sacred tribe.
Of the country of Cyprus. The famous island of the Mediterranean. He and Paul afterwards carried the gospel there.
Having land. Possibly a possession somewhere in Judea. See Num 35:1-8 and Deu 10:8-9. As a Levite, Barnabas would have rights in the Levitical possessions. This is the first mention of this celebrated companion of Paul's missionary labors. He next appears on a mission to Antioch (Act 11:22).
These files are public domain and are a derivative of an electronic edition that is available on the Christian Classics Ethereal Library Website.
Original work done by Ernie Stefanik. First published online in 1996 at The Restoration Movement Pages.
Johnson, Barton W. "Commentary on Acts 4". "People's New Testament". https://www.studylight.org/


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I listened to the health care debate in Congress on and off today while driving around to soccer fields and the mass flu vaccination site, and for the last hour I've had c-span on while sorting my clothes. Although I know that there's still a long while to go before we actually get a law, and this bill is truly an act of sausage making, I'm still fascinated by the process.
Wow, the margin is a lot closer than I would have guessed-- they've got exactly the 218 votes needed, with only one D not yet recorded. I'll be interested to see how many of the Dems voting no are on the left.
Ok, here's the roll call results. I'm not an expert on all members of Congress, but the only nos that jump out at me as being from the left are Kucinich, and maybe Artur Davis.
So, the big news of the evening was probably the passage of the Stupak amendment, which says that any insurance plan purchased through the "exchange" can't cover abortion. My understanding is that this would NOT affect coverage under employer-provided insurance. When I looked into this last year, I found out that about half of employer-provided plans do cover abortions.
I think this is bad policy, for precisely the same reason that I think the Hyde amendment, which bans coverage of abortion under Medicaid, is bad policy. It pushes abortions into the second trimester, which is more dangerous and more expensive. But I'm not particularly surprised by it. Fundamentally, I'd rather health insurance reform that didn't cover abortion than no health insurance reform. And with such a thin margin, I'm not sure Pelosi had a choice.
The cynic in me wonders if maybe more of the public will holler when it's their insurance that is affected, not just poor women's coverage.
Update: I listened to this NPR story on the Stupak amendment on my way home tonight, and now I'm even more confused. They say that it doesn't prevent the exchange from including plans that cover abortion (although insurers would have to offer plans that were otherwise identical but didn't cover abortion) as long as you're paying with only your own money and don't receive a tax subsidy for the insurance.
So what I'm confused about is what are the rules for employer-provided insurance, which is also tax-subsidized. Is it covered by the Stupak amendment? Or are they pretending that employer-provided insurance isn't subsidized by taxpayers?
Update 2: Nice analysis of the D's who voted no from the NY Times.


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text:
In Quentin Tarantino's movie 'Jackie Brown' the illegal arms dealer played by Samuel L. Jackson laughs as he recounts the sales slogan used by the manufacturer of the 'Tech Nine' semi-automatic weapon—"the most popular gun in American crime, like they proud of that shit." Mere weeks after Barack Obama was re-elected farce is added to tragedy with his supporters complaining that while the Republican proposal to cut Federal government spending and social insurance programs is all bluster and misdirection, their guy (Mr. Obama) has a real plan to do so—like they're proud of that shit. Thanks just the same folks, but I'll take the fake plan.
The moment when the New Deal as we knew it became history by bi-partisan consensus was a long time coming. A trans-generational core of inherited wealth and right-wing cranks has been trying to undo the New Deal since Social Security became fact in 1935. Ronald Reagan echoed anti-New Deal cries of 'socialism,' first as a paid spokesperson of the AMA (American Medical Association) against the implementation of Medicare and Medicaid, and later through his racist caricature of the 'welfare queen' living fat on public largesse. Despite the fact that Social Security is an insurance program paid for by its participants, much the same as private insurance but without the executive looting, the charge has always been of an undeserving public sucking on "a milk cow with 310 million tits."
Democrats first joined the effort in earnest with Bill Clinton's plan to partially privatize Social Security. The idea was to let our good friends on Wall Street manage a bit of the money for us, for a fee of course. That proposal faltered when Mr. Clinton was impeached. As was the fashion in European Central Bank circles in 2009, Mr. Obama took up the torch of fiscal austerity of his own initiative by creating his very own deficit commission. This should have come as no surprise to anyone paying attention—Mr. Obama publicly stated his intention to 'fix' Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid when he allied himself with the Wall Street friendly 'Hamilton Project' in 2006.
(In Between Democrats Clinton and Obama came Republican George W. Bush who also tried to partially privatize Social Security. Mr. Bush quickly retreated when he saw the depth of political opposition to the effort. As the saying goes, it takes a Democrat to gut the New Deal).
For the uninitiated, the Hamilton Project is the demon spawn of the Clintonite contingent of the Democratic Party led by former Treasury Secretary and disgraced Citicorp Board member Robert Rubin. The kindest take on the Wall Street lootocracy populating the organization is that they don't know how money is created (the U.S. has a fiat currency), making them morons. The less kind take is that their greed has no limits. Whichever is more applicable (neither is mutually exclusive), if one group of Wall Street politicos bears responsibility for the economic catastrophe that an unregulated Wall Street has visited upon the world in recent years, the Hamilton Project is it.
Never one to let the wish list of the entrenched plutocracy go unfulfilled, Barack Obama chose Democrat, inheritance baby and Wall Street 'welfare queen' Erskine Bowles, to co-head his (Mr. Obama's) very own 'deficit commission.' Of course Mr. Obama knew nothing of Mr. Bowles experience leading the earlier effort to (partially) privatize Social Security when he appointed him to the position. In his speech welcoming the Hamilton Project into existence (link above), Mr. Obama additionally described himself as an enthusiastic 'free trader' committed to globalization. And of current relevance, he ascribed fiscal 'discipline' as the proximate cause of the Clinton economic 'boom,' deftly ignoring the greatest stock market bubble (as measured by price / earnings ratio—twice that of 1929) in human history.
One could be forgiven for believing that Mr. Obama, or any other placeholder Democrat for that matter, has something of a point regarding 'entitlement' spending if his words are the only that are listened to. People in the U.S. are living longer and a strapped citizenry simply cannot afford the lavish promises made in an earlier age of plenty goes the toxic bullshit. By leaving out class divisions this formulation simply furthers the shift in social resources upward from poor to rich. As economist Paul Krugman has effectively argued, the rich are living longer and the working class and poor are not. Additionally, unless those in the 'gap' years between the old and new eligibility ages for Medicare simply forgo health care, the change will force them to purchase private health insurance under whatever terms the 'market' will bear. But of course, private insurance companies always act in the public interest when people's backs are to the wall.
At the end of the day this charade is a struggle over social resources. The 'too-big-to-fail' guarantee of the banks, which is the only reason why insolvent, predatory Wall Street remains in business, is an entitlement program for connected bankers—for which they pay nothing. The bloated, murderous, military industry that lobbies the U.S. into unnecessary wars for their own benefit and that of corporate welfare receiving multi-national corporations is an entitlement program. And the aforementioned corporate welfare that perpetuates the puffy, gray corporate executives behind the 'Fix the Debt' campaign for whom official Washington now apparently works is an entitlement program. So if we want to have a public 'discussion' of entitlement spending, by all means let's do so.
And as far as entitlement programs go, government guarantees and redistribution schemes are only a starting point. As economist Dean Baker has argued, America's professional class retains monopoly pricing power for their labor through trade restrictions while the working class has been thrown to the wolves. The Federal Reserve has spent upwards of four trillion dollars to entitle the fortunes of the investor class since 2008, returning the already rich to their former wealth. And corporate executives have entitled themselves to robber-baron sized paychecks through the combination of trade policies that have so reduced the fortunes of the working class, tax abatements that have bled the public weal for some forty years, and through the financialization of the economy that has favored, along with Federal Reserve policies, the financial wealth that executives pay themselves with. All of these and more are entitlement programs that have redistributed ever more social wealth from the working class and poor up to the Washington establishment's beloved plutocrats.
But the trillions of dollars in health care expenditures that we deadbeats intend to sponge off of the blessedly deserving rich is the really big money, right? When Erskine Bowles wakes with night terrors, it is my herniated disk and your gall bladder operation that will sink the country, right? The U.S. pays 30% – 50% more per person than other first world nations for health care that is of substantially lower quality because we have a largely private health care system. Were the system totally public—Medicare for all, we would realize some material proportion of these savings and most likely vastly improve the health of the citizenry. Were the monopoly entitlements of doctors and pharmaceutical companies reduced or eliminated, further cost reductions would be realized. So quickly, who are the main beneficiaries of America's 'bloated' entitlement programs?
As Mr. Obama will offer, his proposals include reducing payments to health care providers and negotiating lower prices for prescription drugs. However, the private health care system in America is the global leader in shifting costs to those with the least social power. Cuts in public payments to private providers have a long history of popping up elsewhere, as health insurer profits will attest. For instance, Mr. Obama's health care 'reform' program, the ACA (Affordable Care Act), requires insurance companies to spend fixed percentages of their revenues providing health care or to rebate the difference to their customers. As corporations constitute the majority of their 'customers,' corporations apparently now have an incentive to shop around for health insurers that provide the lowest proportion of health care to their employees to maximize the rebates. (The central business of insurers was already to provide the appearance of coverage without providing actual coverage). And health insurance providers can gain market share, if at lower margins, by doing exactly this. Welcome to America.
Last, any honest discussion of 'entitlements' would be to the benefit of America's poor and working classes. The globetrotting plutocrats behind current 'discussions' see working class product as their due. This is the very definition of entitlement. We can either disabuse them of this notion or roll over and play dead. Or better yet, roll over and vote Democrat.
Rob Urie is an artist and political economist in New York.


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Time for a little reader discussion – this one inspired by a Tweet by @JessVanDen who asked:
"do you have a regular posting structure, or just post things as you think of them/find them. i.e. regular features or not?"
I'd like to widen the topic slightly and see if readers do any kind of planning of blog posts ahead of time – or whether they just blog as they sit down each day to blog?
My Answer – I try to do a bit of both each week – I look at the week ahead most Mondays and put together a bit of a plan of attack for the week – but I also tend to swap things around during the week as inspiration hits. Sometimes I'll add extra posts into the schedule and on other occasions I might swap the plan around and post things in a different order.
What about you – do you plan your blog posts ahead of time?


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Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Holiday Goodies
Shown here with a dollop of Tofutti sour cream, these babies are far from the traditional potato latkes. They're made with shredded beets, sweet potato, and carrot. I needed to use up some sweet potatoes and I knew these were good (it was the first dish I tried from VCon when I got it last Xmas), so it seemed an obvious choice.
I also whipped up some Apple Sage Sausages from a recipe I found on Get Sconed!
The recipe originated on the PPK from Jayne (aka Virginwithamemory or VWAM), but it's reprinted in full on Jess' Get Sconed site. They're gluten-based sausages steamed using the Julie Hasson method and get their awesome flavor from dried sage, dried apples, and a bit of mashed potato. These have been perfect for breakfasts this week with leftover Fruitcake Muffins (see last post).
Finally, I've been giving out Xmas gifts of homemade Chocolate Fudge from The Joy of Vegan Baking:
All I can say is, WOW! I'd never made fudge before, but it's super easy and this stuff tastes just like the non-vegan fudge I remember. It's very rich, and really addictive. I can't stay out of it. But who cares? It's the holidays.
Speaking of holidays, I'm fixin' to sit down with a cup of soy nog-spiked coffee and watch Earnest Saves Christmas for old time's sake. I'll going to be parents' house tomorrow for gift time, followed by Xmas breakfast at Granny's, and Xmas with my boyfriend's family in Clarksville.
Happy Holidays, Ya'll!
18 comments:
- Vegan_Noodle said...
Hope you enjoy xmas Bianca! I need to try those latkes! Maybe for the last day of the festival of lights....
- December 24, 2008 at 12:55 AM
happy holidays to you, dear Bianca!
- December 24, 2008 at 12:59 AM
- Melisser; the Urban Housewife said...
Happy Holidays!
- December 24, 2008 at 4:37 AM
All of that holiday-inspired deliciousness...love it! Have a wonderful holiday with your family Bianca!
- December 24, 2008 at 5:40 AM
Now that I've discovered the joy of latkes, I must try those!
Have a wonderful holiday! :) - December 24, 2008 at 7:16 AM
Merry Christmas Bianca! I hope you have a wonderful holiday!
My little brothers have been watching Blues Clues with features a draidle on it so they keep asking to play with one. We are not jewish what so ever! haha - December 24, 2008 at 7:21 AM
- LizNoVeggieGirl said...
Lovely latkes and fudge!!
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE!!! - December 24, 2008 at 7:44 AM
- J said...
Wow latkes! I love them but can never seem to get them right, I always end up with a burnt mess of a pan. But yours look wonderful and I like the change-up from traditional flavors.
Yummy fudge! You are too sweet! I hope you have a wonderful holiday Bianca! - December 24, 2008 at 8:15 AM
- Lisa (Show Me Vegan) said...
Safe travels and Happy Holidays Bianca!
- December 24, 2008 at 10:23 AM
- Leslie Richman said...
Merry Christmas, Bianca!!!
- December 24, 2008 at 11:33 AM
- Chelsea said...
Whoa, that fudge looks awesome! I thought about making it, but the double boiler thing intimidated me. You've inspired me to probably try it, though! I'm going to attempt the cinnamon rolls from JOVB tonight... I've never made anything with yeast so we'll see how they turn out! Your holiday sounds jam-packed but fun, yay! Ours is supposed to be similar, but all this snow in Portland is fucking up all of our plans.
- December 24, 2008 at 1:24 PM
- Jenn said...
Oh, yum, yum and YUM!!!
Merry Christmas! - December 24, 2008 at 4:14 PM
Too funny! I'm Jewish, and of course have always sort of wanted to celebrate Christmas (Hanukkah's really not a big deal past the age of 10 or so.) Your latkes look great!!
- December 25, 2008 at 9:14 PM
- Jess said...
This whole post literally made my mouth water. I want those sausages!!! And the latkes. YUM! Come cook for me, will you? I'm too tired from the holidays to do it myself. :)
- December 26, 2008 at 10:45 AM
- aTxVegn said...
Happy Holidays, Bianca! The fudge looks amazing; I wouldn't be able to keep away from it either.
- December 26, 2008 at 10:35 PM
- River (Wing-It Vegan) said...
First you throw those yummy latkes at us and then before we can recover you whip out the fudge! Oh the fudge!!
Hey, I love your new profile picture! :) - December 27, 2008 at 9:30 PM
- Marisa L. S. said...
I love Ernest! I made the potato latkes from VCOn for Hanukkah this year. It was my first time making the latkes and with the food processor, it was a piece of cake and so delicious! Those autumn ones look good too though!
- December 28, 2008 at 9:25 AM
- jessy said...
i haven't seen Earnest Saves Christmas in AGES! totally takes me back! awesome!
your latkes are gorgeous, the sausages are perfect, and the fudge = mmmmmmmmmm! my sister gave me the Joy of Vegan Baking for xmas - now i know what to make first!
hope you had a rock'n christmas, Bianca! and yeah, i have to agree - dreidels are pretty darn cool! yay! - December 29, 2008 at 7:35 AM


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OCEAN CITY — The civil suit filed last September alleging age bias and discrimination against the town of Ocean City for its hiring practices, which appeared to be heading toward a settlement last week, took a surprise turn this week when an amended complaint was filed alleging the town destroyed or deleted pertinent documents related to the case.
Last September, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the Mayor and Council for allegedly violating the Age Discrimination and Employment Act (ADEA) with regard to its hiring practices. In its formal complaint, the EEOC charges Ocean City discriminated against airport employee Anthony Indge, 62, when it failed to hire him to the position of full-time airport associate in May 2008.
According to the complaint, Indge was employed at the airport as a temporary line technician. However, for about a month in late 2007, Indge filled in as a part-time airport associate after a full-time airport associate had to take leave. In March 2008, Indge again filled in as a part-time airport associate after the town of Ocean City discharged a full-time employee in the same capacity.
The formal complaint alleges Indge performed the duties of the airport associate position to the satisfaction of his employers, to the point the airport manager told him he was one of the facility's "more valued employees." However, during an interview in May 2008, the airport manager allegedly "made ageist comments to Indge, including telling Indge that he had serious concerns about Indge's age and that he did not think Indge would have a long-term commitment because of his age."
A year later, the case appeared last week to be heading toward a settlement, but new issues came to light forcing the EEOC to file an amended complaint this week. In the amended complaint, the EEOC alleges town officials destroyed employment records and interview documents even after the suit was filed. The amended complaint alleges since May 2008, Ocean City has violated the ADEA by failing to make and preserve records required by the EEOC necessary to the commission's administration of the ADEA.
"The records include, but are not limited to, interview notes taken by Airport Manager George Goodrow, who interviewed all the candidates for the position of airport associate, including Mr. Indge, and emails and other documents related to the charges of discrimination and the defendant's responses to those charges," the amended complaint reads.
According to the amended complaint, the issue of the missing documents and records came to light during a deposition of Goodrow.
"Here, the defendant, Ocean City, was required to maintain documents related to the charges at issue until final disposition of the action," the amended complaint reads. "The defendant, Ocean City, has admitted it did not do so."
According to the amended complaint, the documents and records were deleted or destroyed even after the suit was filed last September.
In the amended complaint, the EEOC claims Ocean City should have known it had to retain the records.
"Ocean City cannot genuinely claim that it lacked notice that it had a duty to maintain and preserve relevant business and other charge-related records under the ADEA," the complaint reads. "Indeed, this is not the first time Ocean City has been the defendant in a lawsuit brought under the ADEA."


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Forest Online Homepage
FOREST was founded in 1981 to defend the rights of adults who smoke tobacco. We take the civil liberties standpoint and provide advice on how the needs of smokers and non-smokers may be met. Our aim is to fight the growing intolerance of some sectors of society towards smokers and the increasing efforts to prohibit smoking, or to make it illegal.
smoking FX fx
Here, you'll find news, articles and books and much more. You can ask us for advice if you've faced discrimination and FOREST members can read online our magazine, 'Free Choice'. For companies, there is guidance to help you develop smoking policies that are fair to all and help business.


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Not sure if I should have posted this in the other thread about the game crashing after a god unlock, but I've unlocked the glowing guardian 3 times in the east, and every time the game hangs on the black loading screen and needs to be force killed. I'm playing on OSX if that's useful.
Happy to send my files if someone can point me in the right direction.


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Minnesota Bed and Breakfasts
Mississippi Bluff Country
Twin Cities Metro
More About Minnesota
In 1849 Minnesota became a U.S. territory, and was aptly named Minnesota from the Dakota Indian's description of the waters the color of the sky for the more than 10,000 lakes the state boasts. Minnesotans are huge outdoor enthusiasts, with fishing leading the way with 36% of the population engaging in the activity. The only other state with more fishing enthusiasts is Alaska. Due to the many lakes of Minnesota, most families have cabins for weekend trips or for the annual family vacation. Other activities they, and tourists engage in are many water sports such as boating and canoeing. Water skiing was born in Minnesota and is a favorite pastime as well. Winter activities include hockey, all things skiing and snowmobiling. Minnesota has over 20,000 miles of snowmobile trails and even more biking trails. All of these outdoor activities of the residents have given Minnesota the notable honor of having the healthiest residents in the 50 states. Other indoor sporting pastimes are of the professional nature, such as their NFL team the Minnesota Vikings and the Twins of MLB. Soccer and hockey are also popular. There is also a thriving city scene in Minneapolis-Saint Paul which is home to over 60% of Minnesota's population. Coined the Twin Cities, this is the locale of their major international airport, and the domicile of Delta Airlines. This is also where you can find a very active arts and music scene. Prince, Bob Dylan, and The Replacements are all from The Twin Cities and their legends have fostered a continued interest in all genres of music throughout the area. There is also a huge foodie scene here. Andrew Zimmern, chef, food writer and TV personality hails from Minnesota and blogs in the Mpls-Saint Paul online magazine highlighting local culinary talents and all things cuisine. Look for great eats, outdoor fun, enhancing your active lifestyle and more in Minnesota.


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March 22, 2013 - In line for MSA, a $1 billion producer of workplace safety products, Chris Stock practiced his "pleased to meet you" speech. He was hoping for a job, or an interview, or some notes on his resume. Anything.
"It's kind of scary right now," said Stock, a mechanical engineering major. "There's just a month to go before graduation."
He does have options. A record 160 companies and government agencies attended the spring career fair at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College. Thirty stayed late or returned the next day to interview students for open positions.
"We see what the talent is during the day, and then we bring them in to talk," said Toya Mann, a recruiter for Norfolk Southern. The company has employees in 22 states.
"We're the backbone of the country," said Natalie Tullocuh, who also worked the Norfolk Southern booth. "And things are looking really good for us right now. We're hiring a lot of people."
She needs business majors. That sector of the economy is finally reviving, said Carol Capan, the employer relations coordinator who organizes the career fair, which was open to students from any university.
"There are more opportunities for those students than we have seen in recent years," said Capan, who works in the college's Academic and Career Planning Center. Marketing, management, accounting and finance majors are especially in demand, she said.
Companies are working harder to draw top talent. James Lorenzo, a principal engineer at Bayer Material Science, attended the Penn State Behrend career fair for the first time this year. He typically recruits at the University of Pittsburgh.
Lorenzo had just one open position this week. "This is scouting, mostly," he said.
He liked what he saw. "These students are prepared," he said. "They're not shy. They are handling themselves very well."


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NASA astronaut Scott Kelly has returned to Houston and his Expedition 46 crewmates Mikhail Kornienko and Sergey Volkov have returned to Russia. Their historic mission is over but there are three crew members who are still orbiting Earth on the International Space Station.
The new station commander of Expedition 47, NASA astronaut Tim Kopra, worked on the Water Recovery System that converts urine into pure drinking water. After that, he took a look at the humanoid robot, also known as Robonaut2, for some troubleshooting activities.
British astronaut Tim Peake was inside the Columbus lab module today checking out science hardware for a magnetic field experiment and a payload transfer rack. Cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, who has visited the orbital lab five times, worked on Russian life support gear.
A new set of space station crew members is getting ready to join Expedition 47 when they launch March 18 U.S. time. NASA astronaut Jeff Williams and cosmonauts Oleg Skripochka and Alexey Ovchinin will ride the Soyuz TMA-20M spacecraft for a six-hour trip to their new home in space.


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The availability of genomic sequences and the technology that is rapidly developing to exploit them have opened up new opportunities and challenges for molecular genetics. For example, it has become routine experimental practice to study expression of all the genes of an organism at once, facilitating a level of biological inference at the "system level", well beyond what is possible from studying individual genes, gene assemblies or pathways. The rapid advance of technology for studying global responses of cellular metabolism as well as gene expression, both in populations and individual cells to perturbations in growth conditions has provided sensitive new tools for studying how cells respond and adapt to their environment. The goal of our research is to understand fully how the cellular growth rate is controlled by circumstances. Ultimately, we would like to be able to produce a theory from which the responses of cells to all kinds of environmental perturbation can be predicted.
To this end we are finding ways to perturb cells, while at the same time rigorously controlling the background environment. The idea is to introduce a defined perturbation, such as a pulse of additional nutrient, and observe (and ultimately predict) the global cellular responses, including gene expression patterns, metabolite concentrations and fluxes, entry and exit from the cell division cycle. One challenge in these studies is to devise experimental systems (such as steady-state growth in chemostats or culture on filters that can easily be transferred from one medium to the next) that allow the desired perturbation while minimizing unintended changes in conditions caused by sampling methods or other manipulations. Another challenge is the very large data volumes generated by the DNA microarray, DNA sequence, fluorescence (both in the microscope in the cell sorter) and mass spectrometry technologies that we use. Not only do the data have to be collected, stored and analyzed—they also have to be cast in a form that allows experimenters to understand them.


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Pimsleur Pashto Level 2 Lessons 6-10
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This course includes Lessons 6-10 from the Pashto Level 2 Program featuring 2.5 hours of language instruction. Each lesson provides 30 minutes of spoken language practice, with an introductory conversation, and new vocabulary and structures. Detailed instructions enable you to understand and participate in the conversation. Practice for vocabulary introduced in previous lessons is included in each lesson. The emphasis is on pronunciation and comprehension, and on learning to speak Pashto.
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Pashto is an Iranian language of the Indo-European family spoken by over 17 million people, primarily in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This course teaches the Northern dialect as spoken in Kabul (Afghanistan), which will be understood through all Pashto-speaking regions. Pashto is one of the two official languages of Afghanistan (Dari is the other) and the native tongue of approximately 50 percent of the population there. Although, not an official language in Pakistan, it is spoken by approximately 13% of the population. Pashto uses a modified version of the Arabic alphabet, and is read right to left.
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Virtually every mass shooter has been on psychotropics
Paul Joseph Watson
December 19, 2012
The fact that Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza was about to committed into psychiatric care before his rampage almost certainly indicates he was on one of the raft of anti-psychotic pharmaceuticals linked to aggression and suicide, but reports that Fanapt was the drug are likely inaccurate.
The original source for the claim that Lanza was on Fanapt appears to have been a New York Daily News article first published on Sunday afternoon and then revised on Monday morning.
The initial version of the story prompted the New York Magazine to cite the NY Daily News in reporting that "Adam's uncle….said he was taking an anti-psychotic drug called Fanapt." The story was then picked up by numerous other outlets.
However, the latest version of the NY Daily News article contains no mention of the uncle or the drug Fanapt.
It's almost certain that the original version of the article did mention this before being amended, and that the NY Mag piece was based on the original NY Daily News piece.
The reason for it being removed was likely the fact, as reported by Democratic Underground, that the claim that Lanza was on Fanapt was allegedly made not by Lanza's real uncle, but by an Internet troll who reportedly inserts himself into every mass shooting story by posing as a family member of the killer.
Whether this piece of misinformation will be used by the establishment media to characterize claims that Lanza was on anti-psychotics as a baseless conspiracy theory remains to be seen.
Given the fact that virtually every mass shooter in recent history has been on some form of SSRI drug, expect the corporate press, much of which is funded by Big Pharma advertising, to want to keep the fact quiet.
By hiding the clear link to anti-psychotic drugs, the establishment can continue to blame guns and the second amendment for the tragic shooting. However, if and when an SSRI connection is made, the gun control argument will be severely diluted.
As the except from CCHR below demonstrates, anti-psychotic drugs are a hallmark of mass shooters, but you won't see any call in the mainstream media to see them banned, despite the fact that even gun control advocates like Michael Moore have admitted the clear connection.
1. Huntsville, Alabama – February 5, 2010: 15-year-old Hammad Memon shot and killed another Discover Middle School student Todd Brown. Memon had a history for being treated for ADHD and depression. He was taking the antidepressant Zoloft and "other drugs for the conditions." He had been seeing a psychiatrist and psychologist.
2. Kauhajoki, Finland – September 23, 2008: 22-year-old culinary student Matti Saari shot and killed 9 students and a teacher, and wounded another student, before killing himself. Saari was taking an SSRI and a benzodiazapine. He was also seeing a psychologist.
3. Dekalb, Illinois – February 14, 2008: 27-year-old Steven Kazmierczak shot and killed five people and wounded 21 others before killing himself in a Northern Illinois University auditorium. According to his girlfriend, he had recently been taking Prozac, Xanax and Ambien. Toxicology results showed that he still had trace amount of Xanax in his system. He had been seeing a psychiatrist.
4. Jokela, Finland – November 7, 2007: 18-year-old Finnish gunman Pekka-Eric Auvinen had been taking antidepressants before he killed eight people and wounded a dozen more at Jokela High School in southern Finland, then committed suicide.
5. Cleveland, Ohio – October 10, 2007: 14-year-old Asa Coon stormed through his school with a gun in each hand, shooting and wounding four before taking his own life. Court records show Coon had been placed on the antidepressant Trazodone.
6. Red Lake, Minnesota – March 2005: 16-year-old Jeff Weise, on Prozac, shot and killed his grandparents, then went to his school on the Red Lake Indian Reservation where he shot dead 7 students and a teacher, and wounded 7 before killing himself.
7. Greenbush, New York – February 2004: 16-year-old Jon Romano strolled into his high school in east Greenbush and opened fire with a shotgun. Special education teacher Michael Bennett was hit in the leg. Romano had been taking "medication for depression". He had previously seen a psychiatrist.
8. Wahluke, Washington – April 10, 2001: Sixteen-year-old Cory Baadsgaard took a rifle to his high school and held 23 classmates and a teacher hostage. He had been taking the antidepressant Effexor.
9. El Cajon, California – March 22, 2001: 18-year-old Jason Hoffman, on the antidepressants Celexa and Effexor, opened fire on his classmates, wounding three students and two teachers at Granite Hills High School. He had been seeing a psychiatrist before the shooting.
10. Williamsport, Pennsylvania – March 7, 2001: 14-year-old Elizabeth Bush was taking the antidepressant Prozac when she shot at fellow students, wounding one.
11. Conyers, Georgia – May 20, 1999: 15-year-old T.J. Solomon was being treated with the stimulant Ritalin when he opened fire on and wounded six of his classmates.
12. Columbine, Colorado – April 20, 1999: 18-year-old Eric Harris and his accomplice, Dylan Klebold, killed 12 students and a teacher and wounded 26 others before killing themselves. Harris was on the antidepressant Luvox. Klebold's medical records remain sealed. Both shooters had been in anger-management classes and had undergone counseling. Harris had been seeing a psychiatrist before the shooting.
13. Notus, Idaho – April 16, 1999: 15-year-old Shawn Cooper fired two shotgun rounds in his school, narrowly missing students. He was taking a prescribed SSRI antidepressant and Ritalin.
14. Springfield, Oregon – May 21, 1998: 15-year-old Kip Kinkel murdered his parents and then proceeded to school where he opened fire on students in the cafeteria, killing two and wounding 25. Kinkel had been taking the antidepressant Prozac. Kinkel had been attending "anger control classes" and was under the care of a psychologist.
Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a host for Infowars Nightly News.
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Reza Sayah is a CNN International correspondent who has covered the Mideast, South Asia and Africa extensively.
Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- As the death of Osama bin Laden reverberates around the world, the root causes of extremism are apparently largely being ignored.
But the goals that need to be achieved in Pakistan and Afghanistan in order to turn people away from the lure of al Qaeda extremism will take time.
"The U.S. presence is acting as a rallying cry for these people," said political analyst Aasiya Riaz. "You'll talk to many people who say things will not change in the region until the United States picks up and leaves."
Riaz, a member of the Pakistan Institute for Political Development and Transparency -- an Islamabad-based think tank -- said violent jihad has also been injected into this region's culture and is viewed as an effective strategy against oppression.
Ironically, it was the U.S. that paid for and supported extremist militants during the 1980s Afghan jihad against the Soviet invasion.
The U.S. now rejects those extremists, but many suspect Pakistan's spy agencies still maintain links to Islamist militants and plan to use those links to hold sway in Afghanistan once U.S. troops pull out.
Pakistan denies this, but skeptics say Islamabad's deeds do not match its words.
Tahira Abdullah, a human rights activist in Islamabad, said extremist ideology in Pakistan and Afghanistan is made possible by the crushing poverty, and governments which have failed to provide the most basic human needs, like shelter, security and a basic education.
"It's the lack of democracy," Abdullah said. "It's the lack of development. It's the lack of opportunities."
Studies by the United Nations' aid agencies show nearly half of the adult population in Pakistan is illiterate and earns less than $2 a day.
"Bin Laden was a symbol and an illustration of a mind-set and an ideology that lives on," Abdullah said.
Terrorism experts and sociologists have long rejected poverty and bad governance as the sole prerequisites to religious extremism.
They cite countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and Bangladesh as examples of developing Muslim countries that are not facing widespread religious extremism.
So what makes Pakistan and Afghanistan different?
Analysts say in Pakistan and Afghanistan there is also the powerful perception that the U.S. is waging war with Islam. The perception is intensified by almost 10 years of U.S.-led military occupation in Afghanistan, where thousands of civilians -- who had little to do with al Qaeda or the Taliban -- have been killed.
The Pakistani security establishment's decisive break with all militant groups, U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, and better governance -- achieving these objectives will be a painstaking and complicated process that will take time, but they could be the real keys in the fight against terrorism in this region, far more so than the death of one man.


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By Paul V.M. Flesher
Religious Studies Program
University of Wyoming
July 2012
It is a dream of many Christians to visit the Land of Israel. They think of this region as "the Holy Land," the place where Jesus, Moses, David and other biblical heroes walked. They want to walk where these personages walked and see the land they saw.
Oddly, most Christians who actually visit Israel fail to see what Jesus saw in Galilee. They primarily see what the gospels tell them to see. The accounts of their trips, whether photo travelogues posted on the Internet or ancient pilgrimage itineraries, are filled with sites supposedly relating to biblical events or people. If the gospels did not mention a place, then neither does the visitor. This lens of faith reveals what believers (and the church) wish to see, but completely misses the land the way Jesus experienced it.
This month, I am living in Galilee and working at an archaeological site at the ancient village of Huqoq, up in the hills west of the Sea of Galilee. It is less than six miles from Capernaum, the center of Jesus' Galilee mission, and less than six miles from Magdala (modern Migdal), the home of Mary Magdalene. This is where Jesus hung out during much of his ministry.
Huqoq's elevation, several hundred feet above the Sea of Galilee, provides regular views of this large lake, breathtakingly surrounded by mountains (OK, large hills) on nearly all sides. It is hard to ignore and the gospels did not, for they regularly describe the lake and Jesus' interaction with it. But looking inland, one is immediately struck by the land and its rugged character. Its geography is more like Wyoming's than the pastoral idylls often imagined by gospel readers. It mostly goes unmentioned by the gospel writers.
This area, just south of Capernaum, is dominated by Mt. Arbel, a high mountain capped by a large, rugged cliff. Its dramatic character is enhanced by being situated over one of the deepest river valleys coming off the Galilean plateau. The mountain's foot reaches the lake, making the area north of it into a natural basin containing Capernaum, Magdala, Huqoq and many other villages.
When Jesus walked from Capernaum to locations further west, such as Cana or Nazareth, he would have come through this area. There are three places the path could have come through: (1) the valley below Mt. Arbel; (2) the rising hills north of it, rough but walkable; or (3) a narrow cliff-lined valley known today as the Amud ("Pillar") that provides a direct, if rocky, route to the Galilean plateau. None of these are described in the gospels, although they were known to and experienced by everyone in this region.
Villages are another feature missing from the gospel narratives. This area was full of hamlets and small communities, usually situated at springs, wells and other water sources. The paths would have gone through them and travelers would have drunk water there, pausing in their journey to refresh themselves and perhaps eat or even purchase food.
While the gospels mention nameless "villages," a term that allows them to slide into the background, these would have been part of Jesus' everyday experience as he moved between them, preaching. Huqoq was just one of many villages he would have seen on the hills and perhaps even visited.
Another feature of Jesus' everyday experience that goes unmentioned in the gospels is the city of Tiberias. Situated south of Mt. Arbel on the lake, this city was being built by Herod Antipas as his capital during the time of Jesus' ministry in Capernaum. Placed on a promontory, it stands out not just on the land, but also the lake. People walking here would have seen it often from the hills, and the boats of Capernaum's fishing industry would regularly have sailed past this growing city located less than 15 miles south.
Furthermore, the gospels fail to mention Galilee's other city, Sepphoris, which was built -- during Jesus' childhood -- only five miles away from Nazareth. Since the gospels' Greek refers to Jesus' father as a teknon, a word which means "builder" rather than "carpenter," Joseph may have helped build it.
The gospels' picture of Galilee is gently rural, but not ruggedly so. Their presentation provided a land without cities, one that portrayed Jesus in his own realm and in which urban-based people of higher status, such as priest, scribes and Pharisees, were always out of place. In the end, it is clear that the gospel writers presented what they thought was important for the believer, but they left out much of the character of Jesus' everyday life and the things he saw.
Comments (3)
Thank you for the insights in this article. You might note that teknon means child and tekton means builder.
#1 - Todd Bolen - 07/05/2012 - 05:00
King Herod seems to loom rather large over the villages of Galilee, round which Jesus moves 'kyklo' and completely unimpeded. A rural semi-paradise with a rather conscience-stricken (at least in Mark) tyrant presiding over it. This ambiguous presence contrasts, to great literary effect, with the terrifying rulers of Jerusalem.
#2 - Martin - 07/08/2012 - 19:42
It is very likely the gospel writers did not know much, if anything, about the character of everyday life in the early decades of the first century AD in Galilee.
#3 - Mark Erickson - 07/16/2012 - 02:35


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The Byzantinische Zeitschrift is the leading journal in the field of Byzantine Studies. It publishes articles and reviews on all aspects of Byzantine literature, history, society, and culture. Each issue of the journal contains a large bibliographic section. This so-called III. Abteilung serves as the standard bibliography in Byzantine Studies.


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Fans of Ritchie Blackmore should be familiar with the name of Joe Lynn Turner. Turner was the lead singer of Blackmore's two top bands: Deep Purple and Rainbow. Joe brought a smooth, melodic edge to Blackmore's compositions. At the time Turner was in both Rainbow and Deep Purple, Ritchie Blackmore wanted to take both bands in a musical direction that was less heavy and more AOR. Some fans were taken aback by the different direction. I had grown up listening to the Rainbow records with the late Ronnie James Dio on vocals and was shocked to hear such a different musical sound when I picked up the album Difficult To Cure (Joe's first album with Rainbow). I didn't warm to it initially, but later on, when I picked up the record and judge the music for itself, rather than comparing it to that of the Dio days, I found myself becoming a fan of the music and Joe's vocals.
The Rainbow/Deep Purple days are only one chapter in Joe's musical history. Before Rainbow, Joe sang in Fandango, a group that produced not only soft rock ballads, but country-rock and funk numbers as well. After Rainbow, Joe would do his first solo album, Rescue You, which showcased his vocal talents for ballads and AOR rock. Afterwards, he would sing for hard rock guitar legend Yngwie Malmsteen. Yngwie would play heavier than Ritchie and Joe showed he could also cut it on heavier numbers. Since then he has done several solo albums, worked with various groups such as Mother's Army, Big Noize and Sunstorm, and appeared on several tribute albums. The musical styles vary from progressive rock to heavy rock to ballads, but one thing remains consistent: Joe gives a very smooth vocal delivery. He has also done backup vocals for Billy Joel, Cher and Michael Bolton.
The interviews I do for my blog are much longer than the one I conducted with Joe. However, Joe is constantly touring around the world and has a very busy schedule, so I could only get him briefly for a couple of minutes. In this short interview, we talk about Joe's career with Rainbow, Deep Purple and Yngwie. We also look at some of the controversial statements he has made publicly. I really want to thank Lisa Walker, Joe's executive assistant, for setting up the interview. Most of all, though, I want to thank Joe for taking time out to do this brief interview with me.
Jeff Cramer: I listened to all of the four Fandango records. What's interesting is that the music is very different from the hard rock we now know you for. In fact, the music itself is not at all hard rock. (Click here to hear a sample of "Life of the Party" by Fandango.) Similarly, I read that Roger Glover said at your initial audition that your voice reminded him of Lowell George, late singer of Little Feat. Lowell was a great singer and Little Feat is a great band, but neither is a name we associate with hard rock. The question is: coming from a non-hard rock background, why do you think Ritchie and Roger thought of you to lead Rainbow, a hard rock band?
Joe Lynn Turner: Thanks for your thoughts, and Lowell George was a great singer. That is interesting that Roger said that and I will take that as a compliment. I guess they saw in me the ability to be a chameleon on vocals. I have said many times that I am not one dimensional in terms of what I can sing, how I sing. I do not stick to one style nor do I stick to one type of singing (i.e. head voice, chest voice, throat voice). I enjoy the challenge of singing all types of genres of music. I think great musicians and writers—as both Ritchie and Roger are—see more of the potential in a singer and see more character. Although when I joined Rainbow, Ritchie did prefer me to use a very pointed-note style which was a bit operatic but it is not my only style. When I was working with Ritchie and Roger in Deep Purple, they had no problem with me using a grittier style.
JC: Ritchie has been known for pulling séances and pranks. What was the most memorable séance or prank that Ritchie pulled?
JLT: I can tell you about a couple memorable things, although they aren't séances. I think séances can be a bit personal. But one situation that will forever stand out in my mind is when our regular bus driver on one of the Rainbow tours was ill and we had to get a different guy. When Ritchie first saw this new guy he was freaked out and said he had a black aura. He was replaced by a different guy, but we later heard that this driver with the black aura crashed a bus, so Ritchie's dark premonition was right on about that guy.
Prankwise, one of the most memorable was when I was on tour with Rainbow for the first time. I had gone back to the hotel after the show. I was hoping to get some sleep when suddenly the tour manager knocked on my door. I answered and then Ritchie and a couple of the other guys and crew entered and started throwing things out the window and destroying just about everything in the room. The hotel manager came up later and I tried to explain what happened. I was upset because I thought I would have to pay for all of it, but the manager laughed and told me Ritchie had paid for it all as a "Welcome to the band" kind of hazing.
JC: After Rainbow broke up, there were rumors you were asked by Survivor, Toto, Foreigner and Jason Bonham to sing for them. Are all these rumors true?
JLT: I actually did sing for the Bonham project, but they bought me out of the titles for good money! I rehearsed with Foreigner when they had "Say You Will" written...working on Inside Information. I was also being considered for Bad Company as well. Survivor and Toto were rumors although I did know members of all of those bands and I heard there was some talk amongst those camps.
JC: You were one of the very few singers that got to do your own lyrics instead of Yngwie writing them. In fact, you were the first singer who wrote your own lyrics for Yngwie. How did you manage to persuade Yngwie to trust you with the lyrical side of things?
JLT: The record company was really behind this. They made this giant push to take Yngwie, with me on vocals and as a co-writer, to super group status...they wanted to see Yngwie be more commercially successful. Certainly, he had a lot of talent and had a hard core following, but it was somewhat limited. Eric Singer was supposed to play drums in the band but that did not happen in the end. Anders was a great drummer so he filled that slot. Polygram (the record company) wanted me to contribute melodies and lyrics and Yngwie was on board with that. A couple of the songs were more mine than Yngwie's...for example, "Dreaming" (original title was "Tell Me"). It was a great collaboration, one of the strongest projects I ever worked on.
JC: You were in Yngwie's band when the notorious airline incident happened. Yngwie exploits that incident to this day in that he has named one of his albums Unleash the Fury. Tell us in your own words what happened on that airline.
JLT: I think this recording speaks for itself...LOL!! [Thanks to Joe and Lisa for providing me the audio clip of Yngwie's notorious flight. Click here to listen.]
JC: Some of the Slaves and Masters stuff was written while Gillan was still in the band. What tracks do you remember being written before you joined the band?
JLT: There were ideas for songs but no full tracks. No disrespect intended toward Gillan at all but the truth is there were riffs and ideas but no full, complete songs. Some of the stuff written before also ended up on The Battle Rages On. There was a song called "One Man's Meat" from those sessions that I ended up doing as "Stroke of Midnight" on my solo Second Hand Life CD. [To hear a sample of track "Stroke of Midnight," click here.]
JC: I know a series of fans took issue with you in the video of Deep Purple's Heavy Metal Pioneers when you commented that you're not here to sing someone else's drivel. Could you elaborate on that comment?
JLT: That comment was taken out of context. The viewer did not have a chance to see how it was set up. The setup was harsh...and it put me on the defensive as it probably would have put anyone on the defensive. I regret saying it now because it was misinterpreted. Of course, I never considered anything written by the members of Deep Purple prior to my joining to be drivel. I am and always will be a fan of Blackmore and Gillan's. I grew up playing Deep Purple songs in a successful cover band that was known for doing great versions of Deep Purple songs.
JC: In both Rainbow and Deep Purple, your music went for more of an AOR style. Yet, some Dio fans gave you flak and Ian Paice and Jon Lord weren't on board with you when you felt the band should follow Aerosmith's example. What do you say to those fans and/or musicians who argue Rainbow and/or Deep Purple isn't that type of band and thus they shouldn't be playing that kind of music?
JLT: Was Whitesnake the kind of band that should not be playing the type of music they ended up playing in the 80s versus what they played in the 70s? What about early Def Leppard versus their more commercial stuff? Many bands who sounded different in the 70s or early 80s went commercial or went for a more mass appeal or popular sound in the 80s. But many were successful and still held on to their integrity and identity. And let's not forget that the direction that Rainbow and Deep Purple took when I was in the band was the direction that Ritchie wanted to go in.
JLT and Ritchie happy with their new music direction
JC: You've had a lot of great moments on vocals, but there is one vocal from you that literally made my jaw drop: it's your cover of "Back in Black" with Def Leppard's Phil Collen. How did you get yourself to sound so much like Brian Johnson? [To hear a sample of Joe's take on "Back in Black", click here.]
JLT: As I said earlier, I can sing all kinds of styles and genres. It comes natural to me. It allowed me to stretch out and show range and a different style. I also sang the song on the Classic Rock Cares tour with Brian, trading a verse or two. A lot of people said they had a hard time telling us apart. As for Brian, a lot of people don't know that he can sing in a Dean Martin type style so he is capable of doing different styles/genres also.
JC: I saw you with Big Noize on the M3 festival. (Great show, by the way.) The headliner was Whitesnake. There has been a battle of words between you and David Coverdale when you accused him of lip-synching. How did you two manage to share the same bill? What's your relationship with David today?
JLT: We are professionals and professionals have no problem sharing the same bill. I have always had and still have the utmost respect for David. I never talked with him about this directly. He did his thing at the festival...a great fantastic set. There is no animosity from my side. I regret that my comment was misinterpreted and I did an interview with Classic Rock Magazine to clear the air about it.


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Ball Hockey
In addition to our Multi-Sport programs, stand-alone Ball Hockey classes are offered year-round at select locations. All Sportball programs are designed to grow with your child and reenrollment is encouraged.
All of our classes are Coached with Purpose using Sportball Methodology. All games, activities and instructions have a purpose and expected outcome. Our goal is to build your child's confidence, competence and Physical Literacy. Our programs target three key areas of childhood development, helping them build skills for life!
Our play-based approach uses creative coaching techniques to captivate imaginations and reduce performance anxiety. Hockey nets double as barns and pylons become farm animals that get stick handled back into their stalls before Old McDonald wakes up!
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